This is a short paper I wrote on missional community formation for the Transform Network. I was trying to reframe the conversation around missional community. You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
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The Larger Framing Story: The kingdom of God
What if the narrative of Scripture provides the answer to the larger framing story? It would be fundamentally sound and thoroughly robust. It would allow for different expressions and at the same time call us back to unity. And finally, it would be deeply rooted in God’s mission of restoration and call us to participate.
For Jesus, the larger framing story was the Kingdom of God. Using Tickle’s original concept, the larger framing story is already embedded in the diagram. It just needs to be drawn out.
Jesus understood the larger framing story. He framed the overall conversation not around individual or even corporate expressions of church but around kingdom.
“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)
The word church appears only 2 times in the Gospels, but the word kingdom appears 116 times. Jesus offered the rather stark possibility that when we focused on Kingdom, we got everything else. If we focused on Kingdom, Jesus could build his church.
“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:18)
What if Jesus understood that church was not possible without the larger framing story of Kingdom? What if He understood that one required the other? Historically what has drawn people together is the deep reflection of God in our midst. That’s Kingdom and the larger framing story that is needed. When we begin with our individual expressions, we can easily miss the larger story. But when we begin with the larger story, it is inclusive of our individual expressions.
Kingdom allowed the original framing stories to becomes exactly what they were always intended to be: God’s different, resonating expressions in the larger framing story. One wasn’t better than the other. The contrast didn’t make one right and the other wrong. Each was like a different facet of the diamond.
Jesus: The Original Authority
Kingdom answered one of the central questions of Emergence by placing Jesus as the central authority for everything. This authority was consistently contrasted with those who thought their interpretation was correct.
“The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.” (Mark 1:22)
By placing Jesus as the authority, we re-centered back on fundamental truth. It assumed that He was the answer to the questions.
“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” (John 14:6)
This realignment invited each person to go directly to Jesus and to seek out answers. It invited them to participate in their own restoration process. It also gave them responsibility for their faith.
The Cross: A Basis For Unity
Within this larger story is still the tension for the basis of unity. How could each category discover the permission to cross traditional lines and see the bigger picture? Once again, we return to Tickle’s concept to illustrate the answer.
The dividing lines reveal the cross. And it is through the cross that we see the humanity of each category. Before we ever believed, said, or practiced anything, we were originally human beings created in the image of God. We literally see in the “other” what God sees: Jesus. Restoring that image becomes the central mission of the Gospel.
The cross was not something we earned or made true by our belief. It was something aligned ourselves with so we could see what was already true.
The cross reminded us that as broken eikons we could sometimes get it wrong. History would reveal that we often got it wrong and would even stubbornly change our minds over time. It reminded us to hold our individual understanding of truth with humility.
The cross revealed that the central operating structure of the larger framing story was grace. The Apostle Paul conveyed this over and over again in many of his letters.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
No matter how far we traveled and explored within each category, we were covered by grace. No matter how much we questioned, deconstructed, reconstructed or tried new things, we were under grace. Nothing could change that.
Grace allowed us to live into the tension of taking responsibility for our faith and growing. It allowed us to fail as much as we succeeded. Grace revealed that nothing could separate us from the love of God.
Grace revealed that our faith was not in our own interpretations of what is right but that Jesus would be right for us. It allowed our belief to shift and change, grow and blossom in ways we had never experienced before. No longer was it a question of in or out but growing or not growing.
A Missional Approach
Kingdom freed us up to ask not, “what are we doing”, but “what is God doing?” The larger framing story released us to engage God’s mission and to partner with Jesus in the renewal of all things.
“The Spirit of the lord God is upon me. For he has anointed me to bring the good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim a year of favor from the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19)
Jesus understood that humanity was captivated. His mission was to release people from that captivity, to bring restoration and freedom, to reveal vision and favor.
He also clarified everything by simplifying orthodoxy and orthopraxy down to one truth: love.
29″The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31)
In the act of love we were revealing the Kingdom of God in our midst. We were becoming Jesus to the world around us. In love we were participating with God in the restoration of all things. In love we were revealing that truth had revealed itself in our own lives.
A Vision For A New Network
This larger framing story suggests, and even demands the need for a new way of thinking and organizing. It leads us to ask some very important questions. What would it look like to gather together under the larger framing story of the Kingdom? What would it look like to participate with Jesus in God’s mission of restoration for all creation? What would it look like to create and support missional communities that begin with participation in God’s Kingdom mission?
We believe the time is now to create something fresh and new, a missional community formation network. The network would gather together those individuals, leaders and organizations already participating in the larger framing story. It would also seek out those looking to participate in the Kingdom. It would develop missional communities of practice much like the current church planting networks. It would also foster training and development in missional practices and activities.
It would create a basis for unity founded on grace, and centered on the authority of Jesus. It would advance robust theological conversations across the traditional borders. It would include opportunities for each expression to continue to flourish, knowing that God works in different ways for different people.
Care to join us?
